Edge City

Snake in the Grass

6

MAY/17

Monday, March 28, 2011

Adrian was out on a yacht cruise with Emma and Mugsy.

Genevieve and Anna went to work at Precinct 13, where Genevieve helped Victor work on his speech for Wednesday to the police captains of the precincts. He wanted her help in particular to get the captains on his side. Overall he’s been taking an aloof stance using proxies to speak for Precinct 13, showing what they could of meta treatment without divulging secrets, focusing on how they’re using best practices and industry standards as far as possible.

There have been 6 break-out attempts since the news; one was a PACON activist effort with no guns, easily subdued (and disavowed by the organization, as it does not condone criminal activity.) The Crush School tried one with a sniper shooting Lights-Out-ers rounds at gat bots, but it didn’t get anywhere before the intruders were captured. The break-in attempts bolster Commissioner Felton’s proposal to add drones to the Recon Team arsenal.

Lydia woke up in the boiler of a casino riverboat, where Indigo had offered to share dreams (and she doesn’t feel like doing that.) She teleported home, leaving Indigo there, and spent most of the day reading.

After spending her down time studying wizardry of the Mythos variety, Burr decided to do some day drinking with the Templar. She arrived at the Leaky Gasket to meet Keith, the new omega, and Tonya, the new beta, and to find the Templar overall in a sour mood with Artie the grouchiest of them.

Turns out a hot woman came in and was putting the moves on him, and he smacked her and threw her out. She smelled of serpent, and it got his guts in a knot, so he acted on instinct to reject her, but the incident left him unsettled.

Kinslton arrived later, and played some pool with the Templar.

Dan in Danger

Then a dapper demon named Charon introduced himself (bowler hat, monocle, pinstripe suit, goatee, gloves, all of it.) He was looking for Kinslton, and wanted to inform him that Dan Chauncey could be in some danger. That’s all.

Kinslton, Burr, and Artie drove over to Mumford Block, where Dan Chauncey (CEO of Gazelle Construction) was working on the site. Using his pull with the Chauncies, Kinslton got Dan down to talk with them.

Kinslton told Dan they knew about his demon deal, and a demon told them he was in trouble. He wasn’t happy they knew about any of that, but reluctantly revealed that he met a woman at lunch. (Artie smelled her on him.) It was the same woman that approached Artie, but Dan wasn’t cursed with lycanthropy, and didn’t pick up on the cues. Her name was Sandy, and they were going to meet at the Pierced Pig.

They told Dan to skip the supper, and they headed out.

Research

Kinslton researched what he could find on the Order of Set or snake things in the mythos. There was the obvious, with Yig, but beyond that dark talkes from the Delta of the Nile and New Orleans.

Burr read in occult books, finding how thaumaturgical traditions had distaste for snake worshipping cults of darkness and seduction, in part because they used drugs and blood sex magic instead of proper geometrical theorums and spells.

Both uncovered a broad variety of cults, from the Serpents of the Light to the Fangs in Darkness to the Corrupts, and on and on.

Genevieve went to the Veil in the Mausoleum, and found a heavily redacted entry from the 20s where apparently the Ghost fell to the charms of a snake cult briefly. She also found that the current Ghost, Ryan, had been password protecting his entries. She figured out a workaround to get into them.

He had many notes, but he was not as good at documentation as some previous Ghosts; they were notes for his use. He compiled a list of suspected targets for the snakes in Edgarton, including both Carruthers and the Favian Manor butler, and Anna as a weak point. Also Councilmen Sylvester Baker and Marguarite Smithton, police captain Gary Williams, Judge Angie Blockfort; what’s going on?

He also had extensive interest in a code name FIRSTCODE, which was a subject of the Comstock Project. All the original scientists on that project were dead, and many who had close friendships or professional interest in it were dead too. He was tracking out the expanding blood trails.

Angry that the Ghost wanted her help but did not trust her, Genevieve left the Ghost a note of where they’d be and what they’d be doing—after she changed his password.

The Pierced Pig

Burr and Artie ate inside, waiting, while Kinslton assumed bird form to keep a birds-eye view on the situation. Genevieve contacted the Ghost, who brought the Hearse. Kinslton spotted a black van with a black snake pattern on it, with two men inside after Sandy strutted out of the van to go into the restaurant.

They sent Artie to lure her outside as Kinslton assumed human form, loitering by the door, enchanting his weapon. Artie mastered his conflicted feelings to allow her to lure him into her trap, and as they headed outside, Kinslton sucker-punched her and Artie grabbed her as the Ghost shocked the van and took out the two inside it. They piled the prisoners in the Hearse. The Ghost had a terse conversation about Genevieve about the FIRSTCODE and how it was about rewriting reality based on cognition, and how dangerous it could be to combine it with lycanthropes—but there wasn’t time for more conversation. The operation was over, and the Ghost had prisoners.

Genevieve and Lydia

Lydia texted and called Genevieve, who agreed to have a chat. They met in the Parlor of Relative Safety, and Lydia reviewed what Adrian told her about Tchulza. Genevieve filled in the part about how a previous incarnation of the Chalice Bearer, Irina Favian, had been Swashbuckler’s lover (before he was a pirate) and how when the cult of Tchulza tried to burn the Chalice Bearer out of all time, Swashbuckler saved the Chalice Bearer by killing Irina before the ritual completed. (Also Kennedov knows more about Irina.)

Mainly to say that it would be a bad idea to become an avatar of Tchulza. Also, Genevieve was uncomfortable with Indigo having the level of control he has over Lydia. Lydia took the grim news, and needed to mull it over.